How to make food coloring: recipes. What and how do you make natural food dyes of red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, black, beige, white, green with your own hands?

This article describes how to make natural food coloring.

All industrial confectionery and other products in grocery stores contain a lot of chemical dyes. This can be seen if you look at the product ingredients label.

For a long time now, many housewives have been baking various pastries, cakes, cookies and other delicacies for their households and guests.
But how to decorate a product so that it is original and beautiful?
You can add homemade food coloring to creams, whipped cream and mastic.
It's very simple, read all the necessary information in this article.

How to make natural red food coloring with your own hands?

Cake with red fondant made from food coloring
Natural food coloring is made from the juice of vegetables and fruits. To do this, you need to squeeze the juice or simply boil the grated fruit in water. For example, to make natural red food coloring with your own hands, you will need 1 beetroot. Do the following:

Peel the beets.
Grate it on a grater board on a large section.
Place in a saucepan, add water so that it slightly covers the pulp of the vegetable, and turn on the gas.
Add a few drops of 9% vinegar, but no more than half a teaspoon.
Cook for 3 minutes - no more!
Strain through a strainer to remove the pulp. The juice is ready - it is a natural red food coloring.

Add this dye to creams or doughs to create a red tint.

How to paint cream black

Having discussed a little theory, it's time to move on to practice. I'll show you how to make black cream cheese for leveling. I will not dwell directly on the recipe for the cream; I will only show the coloring process itself:

1. Add a little cocoa to the cream to get a brown color. You don't have to add too much if you don't want to emphasize the chocolate flavor.

2. For the job I used Americolor Super Black dye. How many drops you need for a specific volume will vary depending on the original shade and volume of the cream.

3. For kneading, I used a regular whisk. The result was a uniform and rich color. To make it even deeper, leave the cream to infuse for 30 minutes. You can even make it the night before and leave it in the refrigerator along with the sponge cakes.

4. And here is the alignment process. As you can see, the cream turned out to be jet black, without other shades, inclusions or other imperfections.

Everything is very simple. Then you can safely use the black cream using a piping bag for patterns. The main thing is to warn clients that their teeth and tongues will definitely be stained. Let them not be afraid.

How to make natural blue food coloring?

Cake with blue fondant from food coloring
Blue (purple) color is used when creating cakes or other confectionery products. Typically, confectioners paint mastic, which is used to make decorations for products. To make natural blue food coloring, you need to juice the following fruits and vegetables:

Black or purple grapes
Blueberry
Blackberry
Fresh blue cabbage
Frozen eggplant peel

To get the dye you need to do the following:

Grind the berries in a meat grinder, finely chop the cabbage and eggplant skin.
Then fill with water, put on gas for 3 minutes, add a few drops of 9% vinegar.
Strain and use to create a unique color.

Natural dye quickly turns sour. Therefore, it should only be done once and used within 2 days. It is better to store on the bottom shelf in the refrigerator, where the temperature is lower and the air is cooler.

What to make yourself from

Natural food colors can be easily made at home. Cooking will take a little longer, but the composition of the dish will be completely known and harmless. For natural coloring of desserts, various bright vegetables, fruits and berries with a large amount of juice are used. You can also use wine and chocolate. The amount of ingredients added for color is small, so you don't have to worry about preserving the taste of the dessert.

Red

To give the dessert a red or pink color, you can use a large number of products; it is also possible to combine several ingredients to obtain different shades and degrees of saturation.

Recipe:

You need to squeeze the juice out of the selected product (cranberries, raspberries, lingonberries, cherries, strawberries, currants, red cabbage). If beets are used, then you need to grate several root vegetables, boil and strain the broth, add citric acid during cooking to preserve the color.
Next, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. So the dye can be stored in the refrigerator in a glass container with a lid for up to 10 days.
You can start painting. The resulting composition should be added to the dessert gradually, depending on the desired result.

You can also use wine and berry jam to give the dish a red color; this solution is perfect for soaking sponge cake.

Black

The most commonly used black dyes for baking and desserts are cocoa powder, dark chocolate and cuttlefish ink. The latter are more suitable for coloring dough, for example for black pizza. If you are allergic to seafood, this product should not be used.

Green

A beautiful green color can be obtained from fresh spinach leaves.

Recipe:

Boil 200 grams of spinach leaves in a small amount of water for half an hour.
Strain the broth.
Use the resulting extract for its intended purpose.

Adding Matcha tea powder will give the dessert a richer hue. In a similar way, you can make dye from watercress.

Beige

To give the cream a beautiful beige hue, use tomato paste. You should add a little, a couple of drops, adjusting the intensity of the color, since a large amount of paste will give an orange tint, not beige. The additive will not affect the taste of the product. In addition, to color the dessert beige, you can add instant coffee or freshly brewed ground coffee. But in this case, the coffee may affect the consistency of the final product.

Blue

Various shades of blue are obtained from blueberries, blackberries, dark grapes and the skin of eggplant.

Recipe:

Grind the selected coloring ingredient in a blender.
Place the resulting preparation on the fire, add a few drops of vinegar and heat for three minutes.
Strain and use for dessert.

The preparation sours quickly, so it should be used within two days.

Violet

For a deep purple color, you'll need a large head of red cabbage.

Recipe:

Cut the cabbage into small cubes and boil for 15-40 minutes in a small amount of water. The water should completely cover the chopped leaves in the pan. The cooking time depends on the type of vegetable. The resulting broth should be bright purple in color.
As soon as the color of the broth becomes a bright purple hue, the cabbage should be removed and the broth should be left to evaporate over low heat to the amount of a quarter cup.
Use as directed.

If you add a pinch of baking soda to the mixture, you will get a bright blue color.

White

If you want to decorate baked goods or desserts with white patterns or details, it is better to use homemade mastic.

Recipe:

Mix 200 g marshmallows, 200 g powdered sugar, 2 tbsp. spoons of lemon juice and 2 tbsp. spoons of melted butter in a glass container.
Melt the mixture in the microwave or in a water bath until it has a homogeneous, viscous consistency.
Use for decoration.

The resulting mastic can be painted in any way.

Orange

You can decorate the dessert with an appetizing orange hue using carrots.

Recipe:

Grate the carrots on a coarse grater.
Place in a frying pan with melted butter. The ratio of oil and carrots should be one to one.
After a few minutes, the carrots will release their juice. The fire should be turned off and wait until the workpiece cools down.
Drain the juice and squeeze the remaining baked carrots through cheesecloth.
Use as directed.

You can also use roasted pumpkin juice and orange zest. The procedure is the same as in the recipe with carrots.

How to make natural orange food coloring?

Orange fondant cake with food coloring
Orange paint is bright and juicy. A dough product decorated with this color will be appetizing and beautiful. To make natural orange food coloring, you will need carrots. To obtain it, follow these steps:

Grate the carrots on the large section of a grating board.
Melt the butter in a frying pan and then add the carrots. The proportion of carrots and oil is 1:1.
After 5-7 minutes, the carrots will soften and release juice. You can already use it.
Remove the pan from the stove and squeeze the juice out of the mixture through cheesecloth.

You can also get orange paint using orange zest. Do the same thing with this fruit as with carrots.

Making orange dye

As you might have guessed, the easiest way to make orange food coloring is from carrots. Grate it or grind it in a blender, and then fry it in butter, but do not let it burn. In a few minutes, the carrots will soften and the fat will turn orange. Place this mixture on a plate to cool, and then strain through cheesecloth.

Another option is simpler - you need to squeeze fresh juice from carrots using a juicer. Choose the appropriate method depending on the future use of the dye and what kitchen appliances you have at your disposal.

How to make natural green food coloring?

Cake with green fondant with food coloring.
Green shades are natural and juicy. They are also used to color cream and mastic. To make natural green food coloring, you need to buy a bunch of spinach.

Scroll the greens through a meat grinder.
Transfer the pulp to a gauze napkin and squeeze out the juice. It can already be used as a paint for confectionery masses.

If you want to get a shade of green, but more intense, then simmer the juice of spinach leaves over a fire for half an hour.

Kinds

Dyes are divided into synthetic and natural.

The classifying difference between industrial additives is their consistency.

Types of dyes:

Liquid ones are more affordable, as they are widely available on store shelves. Most often used for coloring protein mass, cream and mastic.
Gel ones are easy to use and have a rich color. Used for coloring creams, glazes and mastics.
Powdered ones require dissolution when used in water, alcohol or vodka. It can also be used dry if necessary. They have a wide palette of rich colors. In addition, using powdered dye it is easy to color coconut flakes or cereals for children's crafts.

Natural dyes are made from various plant materials using a physical method. These can be berries, leaves, roots and flowers. However, during production, products undergo various types of chemical modifications, so it is safer to make natural food colorings yourself. After all, manufacturers cannot always honestly indicate the composition of the product.

How to make natural yellow food coloring?

Cake with yellow fondant with food coloring
Yellow is the color of the sun. Not a single cake or pastry decoration is complete without it. To make natural yellow food coloring, you need to buy saffron.

Grind this plant in a meat grinder or through a coffee grinder if it is dry, and dilute with a few tablespoons of warm water.
Can be diluted with vodka or alcohol, but with water 1:1.
After 24 hours, strain the infusion through cheesecloth.

If you want a less intense color, then grate the lemon zest and squeeze the juice out of it. Turmeric also gives the yellow color.

How to make natural beige food coloring?

Cake with beige fondant with food coloring
Beige is the color of naturalness. It can also be made from products and there is no need to use chemical dyes if you need to decorate the confectionery product. To make natural beige food coloring, confectioners use tomato paste. Depending on the shade, the amount of tomato is added to the mass. The more it is, the faster you will get a “dark beige”, closer to orange shades. Tomato does not affect the taste of the product.

How to make natural black food coloring?

Black and dark shades are also used to decorate individual parts. You can create this color dye at home - in your kitchen. To make natural black food coloring, the following products are used:

Black olives. They need to be grated and boiled in a small amount of water. Then strain and remove the pulp.
Dutch ultra cocoa . It contains a lot of chocolate and is therefore darker than regular cocoa.
Squid ink.

Use olives and cocoa powder to make dye for sweet dishes, and squid ink for lean and salty dishes.

Which ones are better to use?

When using homemade food coloring, it is worth considering the specifics of the product being colored.

For creams, mastics and baked goods

Dyes made from berries and vegetables are best suited for coloring creams, dough and mastic. The main requirement is the liquid state of the coloring composition. For example, if it is necessary to give the mastic a yellow color, use turmeric diluted in a small amount of water. In addition, the dough can be colored simply with juice squeezed from bright berries and vegetables. And put chopped berries with juice into the cream and mix, this will make the dessert even more interesting and elegant.

For coloring eggs

To color eggs, you do not need to prepare the dye first; the pigmenting ingredient is added during the cooking process.

How to dye eggs:

in yellow - add three tablespoons of turmeric and a little vinegar to a boiling container with eggs;
to pink - boil the eggs together with the chopped beets, while the shells will initially turn brown and turn pink after drying;
orange - add four cups of onion peels during cooking, for a brighter color, leave in the broth overnight in the refrigerator;
silver - add water to the blueberries in a one-to-one ratio, crush the berries and leave the eggs in the prepared mixture in the refrigerator overnight, then boil.

You should wear gloves when using turmeric.

For drinks

For coloring drinks, it is most convenient to use homemade syrups. Due to the large amount of sugar, such preparations have a long shelf life. You can make syrup from sweet pumpkin, berries, banana, yellow and red plums, pears, peach and pomegranate.

Homemade syrup recipe:

Squeeze juice from the selected vegetable or fruit.
Bring to a boil and add sugar in a one to one ratio. Boil for 10 minutes.
Cool and place in a glass container with a lid.

Milkshakes and smoothies can be colored by adding fresh berries, melted chocolate, or pureed vegetables. But in this case, it is worth remembering that additives will affect the taste of the final product.

For powder

Industrial confectionery powder for baking can be replaced with colored sugar. To do this you will need a plastic bottle and natural dye. The ingredients must be placed in the bottle and shaken vigorously. A small amount of coloring should be added to prevent the sugar from dissolving and sticking together. In a similar way, you can color coconut shavings and cereals for children's crafts.

How to make natural purple food coloring?

Purple fondant cake with food coloring
It was described above how to make natural blue or purple food coloring using blueberries, dark grapes or eggplant peels. Experiment and mix berry and vegetable juices to create different shades of purple or blue.

Mixing Natural Food Colorings: Rules

Cakes with fondant of different colors with food coloring
If you plan to work as a pastry chef at home - making confectionery products to order, then you will use a lot of food coloring every day. It can be stored in the refrigerator, but no more than 2 days, and you can mix already created shades to get new ones. For example:

The color of the sea is obtained by mixing blue and green.
Blue and all its shades - when mixing green and red.
Dark (black) shade - green, blue and red.
Pistachio - yellow and blue.

There are rules for mixing paints. They also work for mixing natural food colorings.

Rules for mixing colors

This circle shows what happens if you mix primary colors.

For example, when red and blue are dissolved, the result is purple.
When obtaining secondary and tertiary colors, you need to mix those colors indicated by the corners of the triangle of the secondary color.
For example, when you mix secondary green and primary yellow, you get tertiary - yellow-green.

It's simple: look for the dyes of the desired color in your refrigerator and mix them according to the rules of this circle to get the desired shade.

Features of painting black

It would seem that what is so difficult about coloring the cream? You take the dye and add it. If the color is faded, add more. But alas, it is likely that with this approach you will succeed:

dark green;
dirty blue;
violet;
dark grey.

At the same time, trying to correct the situation and adding more and more dye, you will spoil the cream. If the paint is dry, it will become too thick. If a gel is used, the cream will separate or even curdle due to excess moisture. Therefore, before you start decorating the cake, make sure to properly prepare the basis for the work:

Use chocolate cream on cream, butter or cheese. You can successfully repaint a light one, but much less dye will be spent on a brown base, and the color will be deeper and more saturated.
We use fat-soluble dye and add it only after all the ingredients of the cream are well combined. This is the only way to paint the mixture evenly.
We wait. Black, like red, blue, and purple, takes time to activate. Therefore, we simply add the required amount of dye according to the instructions on the package and set the bowl aside for 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, these little secrets do not always help achieve a black cream color. You may not get the desired shade solely due to poor-quality colorant. Therefore, you need to pay special attention not only to the coating recipe, preparation and decoration of the cake, but also to the brand of dye used.

How to make brown natural dye at home?

Many novice confectioners think that brown dye at home is made only with cocoa. This ingredient can be used if you need to decorate a sweet cake or pastry.

But what if you need dye for a salty dish? You can use coffee. It must be brewed and strained through a sieve - the dye is ready.

Brown dye is also made from caramel:

Boil sugar with a little water in a ratio of 5:1.
Heat until mixture turns brown.
Then remove from heat and add some water.

Important: Do not burn the sugar so that the caramel does not taste bitter.

Purple and lilac colors

The easiest way to prepare such food paints is from the peels of eggplants or blue cabbage. Grind them, add a small amount of water and bring to a boil. Then add a little (no more than ½ spoon) table vinegar to fix the color.

The result will be a fairly rich color, but you can dilute the dye with water to lighten it and create a lilac dye. Please note that this natural paint will turn sour in 2-3 days, so hurry up and use it for its intended purpose.

How to get pink natural dye?

Pink fondant cake with food coloring
Pink food coloring is one of the most popular dyes used to create cream and fondant with this shade. At the same time, the pink chemical dye is dangerous, as it can cause allergies or even bronchial asthma.

Make pink natural dye at home. You can get it from strawberries and raspberries. Scroll the berries through a meat grinder and squeeze out the juice. A more delicate shade will be obtained if the juice is boiled with water.

What natural dye is best to use for cream, mastic, cake icing?

When creating cream, mastic and icing for cakes, it is important that these masses are uniform in texture and color. Therefore, it is better to use natural dye in liquid form. Vegetable or fruit juice or boiled liquid will help make the mass beautiful in color. It is worth noting that there are natural food colors that are used in food production in the preparation of various products. These include the following additives:

Food colorings

In addition, there are absolutely safe natural dyes. They can be divided into several types:

Gel - used for coloring creams, mastic and dough. Consists of glycerol and glucose.
Liquid - color the cream, help make inscriptions and drawings on the mastic using an airbrush.
Dry - diluted in boiled water. Used to color dough and cream.
Kendurin - allows you to achieve a pearlescent shade of cream, mastic or dragee. It consists of natural silicate, which gives this effect.

Accordingly, in addition to natural juices, gel, liquid, dry dyes and kendurin can be used to color creams, mastics and glazes.

How to make black cream to cover a cake?

And we have the next question!

Good afternoon How to make black cream for a cake? I made Creamcheese with dark cocoa and with the darkest chocolate, then added black Americolor dye, but the cream still remained dark brown. Maybe another brand of dye works better? Then which one? And what are the proportions of chocolate/cheese/coloring?

We are waiting for your comments